


To Be My Own

by rivendellrose



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Kidnapping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-07
Updated: 2012-10-07
Packaged: 2017-11-15 20:50:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/531553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rivendellrose/pseuds/rivendellrose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She's meant to be his. They both are.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Be My Own

The idea came to him, with the force and fire of prophecy, the first time he saw the little girl dancing out of her mother’s reach in the agora. Most of the children of New Caprica stayed close to their parents, afraid of the Centurions who clanked around on patrols. Not this one. She laughed and turned toward him as she ran, her face lit with a smile that hit him like a knife through his heart. Not metaphorically, either. He knew that smile, and he knew precisely what a knife felt like in his heart; he’d seen and felt them together five times over the last year, as Kara Thrace gloated while his body fell cold at her feet, the blood still dripping from her knife. He’d have to be more careful in the future - she’d never love him if he kept letting her get hold of weapons.

But now he had a weapon of his own to use in return, he thought with a smile. 

He knelt down and smiled at the little blonde girl. She continued smiling back at him. Children might be afraid of the Centurions, but they hadn’t learned to recognize he and his brothers and sisters as Cylons, yet. 

"Hello. My name’s Leoben." He held out his hand to her. "What’s yours?"

She shook his first two fingers solemnly. "Kacey."

"I’m glad to meet you, Kacey. You remind me of someone very important. Your name is even a bit like hers. She’s called Kara. Would you like to meet Kara, Kacey?"

Kacey nodded. Straight from the mouths of babes, he told himself - God was smiling on this plan. He stood up, his fingers still in hers, just as the little girl’s mother caught sight of them. She recognized him, and her face went white with fear. She started trying to push through the crowd to get to them faster, shouting. A pair of Centurions on patrol cut off her path and herded her in the opposite direction, over her screamed protests.

With that problem solved, Leoben bent and picked up Kacey. She felt right in his arms - weight, solidity, her soft hair against his cheek. This was the right thing to do. This would help Kara to understand. And it wouldn’t hurt Kacey, either. She obviously hadn’t been getting enough to eat, and there was dirt on her face and clothes. With him - with them, him and Kara both - she would have all the good food her little body needed, the best medical care, and the most comfortable home. She would know God’s love - he'd save her from the blasphemy of the Humans' false gods. She would be his and Kara’s and all would be as he’d foreseen. 

He’d seen it all long ago, before the holy war, before they’d ever dreamed of what they had here on New Caprica. He’d seen Kara Thrace, beautiful and intense as looking into the light of the sun, and he’d seen how it would go between them. Round and round in circles of hate and fear and, finally, acceptance and love, then back to the hate and fear again. Always the same, but always different. He’d seen her kill him - seen his blood on her hands - and he’d seen her hold him and tell him she loved him. And Kacey was a part of that. He knew the instant he saw her. She looked so much like Kara must have looked as a child. 

She was resilient, too. She cried, at first - sniffled and whined that she wanted to go back to the agora, that her mother would miss her, and she flailed a bit at him when he told her that she would have a new mother. Her little fists smacked his cheek and his arms, and that reminded him of Kara, too. How very alike they were, both struggling against what they didn’t understand. But she cried herself quiet after a while, and he spoke gently to her and explained to her that her mother wasn’t able to take good care of her anymore, and that he wanted to be her friend and her father, now, and that his friend Kara would want to meet her and be her mother. "Kara is a very important and wonderful person - just like you are, aren't you?" He smiled. "But she's sad and scared right now, Kacey," he continued. "She’s been through a lot. She needs a friend. Do you think you can be a friend for her?"

Kacey nodded solemnly, and wiped her nose on her sleeve. 

"We’re going to need some new clothes for you," Leoben told her with a wry smile. "We can’t have Kara thinking that I’ve mistreated you."

This would be right. His plan would work, and they would both be his. This time, it would all be right.


End file.
